Bones: "The End in the Beginning"Review

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A punch-drunk Booth overwhelms the season finale with the vigor of a coma.

By Laura Burrows

Hallucinations are funny things. They allow the pretender to alter reality and adjust rational thinking. They even promote an Alice in Wonderland-type of world where one man's scientist is another's Cheshire cat. In this case, "The End in the Beginning" had the world of Booth (David Boreanaz) and Brennan (Emily Deschanel), science and fiction, turned upside-down with what turned out to be a rabbit hole none of us willingly fell into.

"The End in the Beginning" opened up with the typical type of finale flair; Booth and Brennan engaging in sexual activities never before seen (or heard) in the show's four seasons. It was a guilty pleasure to indulge in their debauchery, and yet a zealous viewer knew that this scene could not possibly be real. We all knew that this had to be a set up, one that would be explained by a dream abruptly ended or a drug trip cleared by hazmat in the lab. But it didn't end…it went on for over forty minutes…

Up until this episode, Bones has been a unique and incredibly quirky show. I haven't always agreed with the writing—think Season 4, Episode 12: "Double Trouble in the Panhandle" where the genius and the FBI agent went 'undercover' as Russian carnies and Season 4, Episode 15: "The Princess and the Pear," where Sweets (John Francis Daley) dressed up as a Trekkie to spend $500k on the Excalibur — but overall, the cases have been fascinating and the characters incredible. I guess the finale can still be listed as 'unique' but it was one of those "you either loved it or hated it" moments.

For the sake of argument, we'll do a Venn diagram and let you decide which way this finale falls. On the one hand, we had a fanciful episode where all the characters, aside from Brennan, were opposite of what their arcs have derived after years' worth of development and the basic premise of the show: genius anthropologist and street-smart cop conquer DC crime world was erased and replaced with near-genius night club owner and her husband play with Motley Crue and unwittingly solve a murder.

The truth is, it's hard to speak to the benefits of this episode other than the curious character modifications and even these were poorly executed. While it was entertaining to see Sweets as a pop-singer and have Zack (Eric Millegan) back in "the lab," the writing was quite poor and the arcs quite obvious. Case No. 1, Angela's (Michaela Conlin) introduction being "I don't have much of a visual imagination." We get it, in this episode she's nothing like her normal self where she works as a forensic artist. And then there was the costuming; Booth looked like a jerk. The suspenders and open T were poor validation for his new role as a night-club goon. Hodgins (T.J. Thyne) was a bit more believable as the pulp novelist, but his audio commentary track over all the sentimental moments, especially toward the conclusion, seemed contrived and forced.

Even Brennan had difficulty capturing her character. I wasn't sure if this was the fault of Deschanel because she is so tightly tied to her normal character and is incapable of breaking the Brennan-mold or if she was supposed to remain as "Bones-like" as possible while spouting stupid lines such as "I'm so glad we are night club owners and not crime solvers." Really?

I guess the writers could pawn this off as another 'stupid Booth' moment and that his comatose state was to blame for this twisted tale. But overall it was a slam-dunk when it comes to arbitrary finales completely devoid of relative facts or actual conclusion. Though it was watchable and entertaining with its vast stereotypes and over-the-top story, I can't rank this episode much higher than a 6 on our scale. Based on nothing else other than a psychedelic trip down the rabbit hole, I might give the episode a 7.5, but the fact that this was a completely unrelated and irrelevant finale that had no conclusion other than Booth did not die (big surprise there) I would give it a 4. Since they threw in the Crue I'll round up on the difference and call it a 6.